The Pleasure Principle
by Mystic83
Summary: Sigmund Freud had a theory called the pleasure principle in which the id part of the brain was constantly compelling a person to follow their drives regardless of any consequences. Bet he never thought it would be used as a wager in a Triad game.
1. Chapter 1

"Full colors," Kara Thrace said with a laugh, slamming her cards down on the table. "There goes the last of your money, Doc. I promise I'll give it a good home."

The other two players at the table did their best not to laugh as Dr. Gaius Baltar threw his cards down in disgust. Lee bit down hard on his lip and tried to just stare at the cubits lying in front of him while the need to snicker died down.

Dee, in turn, was trying not to look at Lee as she collected all the cards into her hand. "Another hand everyone?"

"Everyone but Dr. Baltar," Lee said, throwing five cubits into the pot as a start.

"Sorry," Kara said with a fake pout. "And I was so looking forward to spending more time with you."

Baltar cleared his throat and leaned across the table towards her. "You know, this doesn't necessarily have to be the end of our night together, Lieutenant."

"You're out of money. That makes you pretty damn worthless in my book," she whispered, giving him a wink.

"Some things I have to offer can be better than money."

Kara licked her lips as she thought about what he was saying. If he was hitting on her, it wasn't really working. She wasn't even excited at the possibility of hoping into bed with the Vice President again. But still she was curious. "What could be better than money?"

Baltar leaned back and smiled at the whole table. "Have you ever heard of the Pleasure Principle?"

"Sounds like an adult film," Dee said with a laugh. She started dealing the cards, but as she got to Baltar, she paused.

"Deal him in," Kara said. "I'm intrigued at what he's going to offer me. I'll float him the money to get into the pot." She smiled at the man across from her. "Now, where were you?"

Baltar pushed his glasses up on his nose and continued on, "An ancient philosopher once said that we have multiple parts of the brain which co-exist to control our behavior. The one part controls all of our drives, and if it was not kept in check, we would walk around doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. No consequences. No pain."

"Sounds like my kind of guy," Kara said with a laugh as she put her cards in order.

Lee shifted in his seat. This conversation was starting to make him uncomfortable. It was like the good Doctor was trying to initiate some kind of foreplay in front of them all. "Get to the point, Doc, or we're going to have to deal you out."

"Pardon me, Captain. What I was offering is a little experiment into this Pleasure Principle. Winner of the hand gets twenty four hours to try it out. They can do whatever they want with no consequences. No objections. Complete freedom. So, what do you say? Sounds like something you might be interested in?" Baltar asked, giving her a sly grin.

Kara was about to tell him he was out of his mind if he thought that was a sufficient wager to go up against all the cubits already on the table when Lee cut in. "Dr. Baltar, you seem to forget that it's not just the two of you. I'm still in on this hand." Lee shook his head and added to the pot. "So maybe you should be asking me if your little underhanded attempt at getting in my pilots' pants is a large enough bet to keep this thing going?"

Baltar didn't even turn to acknowledge the truth in Lee's statement but continued to stare at the woman sitting across from him. "Well, Lieutenant Thrace?"

"Well, if Captain Tightpants is in, then I'm there," Kara said, throwing her last ten cubits into the pot. Her hand really wasn't that good, but she figured she could bluff her way into winning this lovely prize. Besides, she wouldn't doubt if Baltar had intended for her to win when he made the suggestion. It sounded like something suitably slimy which was exactly his type of thing.

"Just let me make sure of one thing. If we're going to do this, I want it done right. And on a ship-wide scale. It's no fun to have to limit yourself." Smiling, Kara pushed her head back to look at the rest of the pilots in the room. "Any objections from my fellow male pilots who I will be putting through hell when I win?"

From across the room, Helo paused in reading his book to give her a smile. "None if it's you, Starbuck. This place needs a little livening up." He gave her a wink before turning away.

"Thanks, Helo," Kara said, smugly staring down at her cards.

"Any objections from the ladies?" Baltar asked.

Dee smiled pleasantly at the man beside her. "Not if Starbuck promises to keep her hands off Billy."

Baltar narrowed his eyes at the blatant slight while Kara beamed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dee," she said with a laugh.

"And everyone's forgotten again that I'm still there," Lee said with a laugh. He turned to Kara and smirked. "I mean, if you win this, it's going to impact me quite a bit, isn't it?"

Dee watched as Kara's eyes flared a little before the Viper pilot smirked and turned her attention back to the cards in hand. If Dee hadn't known better, she would have guessed it was a little bit desire and a whole lot of anticipation reflected in Kara's eyes. Interesting.

"Trust me, Captain. I'm sure she didn't forget," Dee said, looking him up and down. "Pleasure principle indeed."

Lee blushed slightly as he looked down at his cards. Three on a run wasn't that great a hand to be playing, but he had gotten in too far already. Besides, he wanted to have a first hand seat to see where Kara went with this whole pleasure principle notion if she won.

"Cards, fellows!" Starbuck yelled, tapping the table.

Gaius placed his down. "Two with a Lady high."

Lee felt his heart speed up just a little. If Dr. Baltar was stupid enough to bring up the idea of betting such a ridiculous thing and he had nothing, Kara had a shot.

"Lee?" Kara said softly.

"You first."

She rolled her eyes but did as he said. "Three on a run. Beat that, flyboy!"

Lee's eyes widened. He had been a pilot for almost nine years now, and he had played his share of triad during that time. But never, not even once, had he seen two similar hands played at the same table. It was practically impossible.

Kara interpreted his hesitation as an admission of defeat and jumped up to pump her fists in the air. After her little dance was complete, she started looking around, "Hmm. I wonder what my drives are going to beg me to do today."

He always loved it when Kara did her victory dance at the card tables. There weren't enough times that she had actually been happy enough to break it out. In truth, it made him slightly sad.

That is, he would be sad if only he could stop laughing.

"Not so fast," Lee managed to choke out, pushing his cards down onto the table. "Three on a run. Looks like we tied, Lieutenant."

Her face broke out in confusion as she leaned down to check his cards. "That's impossible," she said, shaking her head.

"No, it's statistically improbable. There's a difference."

Kara gave him an annoyed look as she settled back down into her chair.

"So you won." Baltar's words made her sit up a little straighter as what had just happened really dawned on her.

"Yeah, I did." She smiled and pointed at Lee. "But so did you."

"I didn't bet against him," Dr Baltar protested. "I bet against you. And you were the one to put up the money to get me into the pot."

Lee pushed his chair back and stood up. "Well, as much fun as it would be to listen to you two debating the nature of your little bet, it's about time I hit the rack."

"Wait!" Kara reached up to grab his arm and pulled him back down into his seat. When it was clear that Lee wasn't going to try to leave, she turned to Baltar. "I put the money up for you, but that money went into the pot. Therefore the bet went into the pot. And everything there is half mine, but it's also half his."

Lee nodded and stood up again. "Good to know, Kara, but I still want to hit my rack."

"Ah. Following your drives," Dee said with a laugh as she started to collect the cards. "Is your drive wanting any company? Because I'm off shift."

"You're incorrigible," Kara said as she started to pick up the pot the two of them had won. "Hold on a second and I'll come with you, Lee. We should divide up this money before I forget and keep it all. Because you know I will."

Lee gave her a small nod and waited by the door until she had caught up with him. Together, they continued down the hall side by side. They walked in silence as Kara counted out the cubits and split them in half.

"So that was interesting," she said, holding Lee's half out for him to take.

"I don't think that went the way Baltar planned," Lee said. He pushed open the hatch to the bunkroom and stepped inside. "Hell, I don't think that went the way I planned, either."

"Sad because you might actually be forced into doing all the things you've always wanted but never thought you could do?" When he didn't answer, Kara walked over to sit on her bunk. She slid her hands behind her head and stared up at the bunk above her as Lee clambered up the ladder to lay in it. After a moment, she asked, "So what are you going to do first?"

"Huh?"

"The little something extra we won on that triad game. What are you going to do first?"

"I hadn't thought of it. All I can think of is getting some sleep."

"Well, I know what I'm going to do," Kara said with a laugh as she stood up. She heard Lee shuffle as he turned to watch her walk across the bunkroom and open Helo's locker. After a moment of riffling, she let out a triumphant cry and held up a cigar. "Got it! I knew he was hiding a Sagittaron in there. The Fleet ran out of these months ago."

"He's going to kill you."

"If I remember correctly, he agreed to the bet."

Lee rolled his eyes and turned back over. "He's still going to kill you."

"No consequences." She could practically hear Lee stiffen at her words.

"Some actions have consequences no matter the game you're playing. Don't let this little bet get away from you."

She should have known he'd kick into his protective mode at the mention of no consequences. Before she could start teasing him, though, he kicked the covers down off his bed violently and started complaining, "Why the frak is the bunkroom so hot today?"

"I think there was a back up reported in the pipes or something equally boring. Nothing big enough to necessitate the pouting or whining, though." She lit the cigar and placed it between her lips. "Why are you being such a downer about this whole principle thing anyway?"

"I'm not being a downer," Lee said, stretching his body and repositioning himself so that he was looking up at the ceiling of the bunkroom. "I'm just saying that it's not that exciting a thing for me. There's not many drives I have that aren't rational enough to be followed on a normal day." He sighed and shut his eyes. "And with that, I really need to get some rack time. So I'm following my drive to tell you to frak off."

Kara narrowed her eyes at him and watched as his breathing slowed to a stand still. "No irrational drives, my ass," she grumbled, puffing away on Helo's cigar while still staring at the sleeping CAG. She would show Lee. By the end of their twenty four hours, she would have him engaging in all kinds of drives he wouldn't have given in to on any other day.


	2. Chapter 2

Lee Adama decided that he was losing his mind. Since he had woken up from his rack a few hours earlier, his best friend in the Fleet had slowly and surely been driving him insane. And not in any of her usual ways, either.

She wasn't making him angry or challenging his position as CAG. She wasn't arguing about some nugget that wouldn't fall in line or grumbling because she had gotten stuck with the worst patrol. No, she wasn't yelling or swearing or fighting. It would be so much easier if she was.

Instead she was lightly touching his arm as they passed each other in the hall. She was smiling at him out of the corner of her eye even when they were at different sides of the room. And when they were side by side, she kept staring at his lips as he talked with her. For some reason, he couldn't shake the memory of how she bit kept nibbling on her own lower lip as she stared. She had never looked that way at him before.

Then, Kara had thrown him a sly smile as they passed each other in the head. Her words had turned to a soft teasing. Even though she had continued to tell him to frak off every other minute, it was in a whole different context when she used that tone.

Frak, if he didn't know better, he would say that she was seducing him.

And if he was a little braver, he might admit that he was enjoying it.

Lee tried to push all thoughts of Kara out of his mind as he finished up his workout. He had planned to come to Galactica's gym facilities and lift a few weights, but he had been too restless. Instead he had drifted to the punching bag where he had been steadily beating away his problems for the past hour.

Sighing, he gave the bag one last punch before wiping the sweat off his brow and turning to leave. The workout obviously wasn't doing him any good.

Lee didn't even bother to pull the tape off his fingers as he made his way through the corridor. His mind had turned immediately back to the thought of Kara's strange behavior. He didn't know what she was doing or why. He had a feeling it had something to do with the little bout of freedom they had won at that damn triad game, but he had no clue where she was headed with this one.

The only reasoning for her actions he could think of was that maybe Kara was getting antsy with him. He hadn't done one thing that he had felt the desire to. It was probably killing her that he was letting this opportunity slid by. This could all just be another ploy to force him to loosen up. She had been desperately trying for weeks now, ever since her return from Caprica.

He was ripped from his musings as he felt a hand on his arm accompanied by a soft whisper in his ear, "Where you heading to, Captain?"

Lee tried to hold back the slight tremor that wanted to erupt at the sound of Kara's low, raspy voice so dangerously close to him. "I was thinking about taking a shower, Lieutenant," he said, smirking at her. "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," she said, still holding on to his arm. "In a minute. There's something I want to do first."

Lee had no idea what was happening until it was too late. Kara's grip on his arm tightened as she pushed him to the side of the corridor. She held his gaze for a moment before gently tipping his chin to the side with her hands. Her fingers slowly traced the outline of his lips as she leaned in close, a seductive gleam in her eye. Her tongue slid out to run along the line where his neck met his jaw. The warm pressure of her lips in combination with the touch of her fingertips and the moistness of her tongue made his insides start to burn with a desire he hadn't known was there.

Or at least he would never admit to it.

Kara took a step back and licked her lips invitingly as he tried to catch his breath. "Salty. Just like I always imagined."

His eyes widened at her brazen words. Her body still stayed impossibly close to his as he felt her nuzzle the side of his neck. He could feel the tension in his body increase as he became all too aware of the sudden power this woman had over him. She shifted her hips against his growing erection and ground into him shamelessly. As hard as he tried to fight it, a moan passed off the tip of his tongue, and he felt Kara laugh lightly.

"I think you might have an inappropriate drive, Lee," she scolded, reaching her hand down to lightly cup where his pants were dangerously tight. "You might want to work on finding a way to relieve that."

Before Lee could get a control on either his body or his mind in order to form words, she had walked away down the corridor.

"Frak," he whispered as he turned to hit his forehead against the corridor wall and tried to take calming breaths. If he didn't figure out what she was up to soon, he really was going to go insane.

Stalking down the corridor, he went into the bunkroom to grab some clean clothes before heading to the showers. It was mid-day so there wouldn't be that many people in there. He could take care of the little problem Kara had given him without anyone even knowing. As long as she stayed out of his way, there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

As Lee walked through the corridors, he began to start doubting his luck. Fifteen minutes hadn't gone by that day without Kara popping out of some corner to torture him slowly. It would have been like every other day if it weren't for two things. One, she was torturing him in a very, very physical way. Two, it was blatantly clear that she knew what she was doing.

He had known Kara for years. And for all those years, she had been finding ways to physically torture him without even realizing what she was doing. She walked around the bunkroom in her skivies, puffing away on a cigar. She sparred with him in the gym, not knowing that the way she grunted and groaned sounded frighteningly similar to sounds of passion. She had the most fascinating and most frustrating tell in the world when playing triad. Lee had been the only one to pick up on the way she slowly brushed her lips with her fingertips because he was probably the only one constantly finding himself staring at her while they played.

The people at academy had always joked about the hotshot pilot who knew how to figuratively push a man's button but was never around long enough to let him realistically push hers. Lee had defended her every time he heard something like that. The same talk had been circulating around Galactica, too. He still found himself defending her.

Little did everyone know that he was lying. Lee knew deep inside that everyone had her pegged completely. She had no idea the amount of sexuality and sensuality that radiated in every single cell in her body.

Lee stopped in his tracks as he pulled himself back to reality and back to his original worry. He had made it all the way to the head without encountering her. "Odd," he muttered. He gave Hot Dog and Kat a nod when he saw them standing outside the door.

"Sir?" Hot Dog said just as Lee went to push the hatch door open. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

He gave Hot Dog a look of confusion. "Why not? Is there a problem with the plumbing again or something?"

"No," Kat said, stepping forward. "It's just that Starbuck is in there. And she asked us to keep everyone out."

"It's that stupid bet she won with Dr. Baltar. Everyone agreed to it without knowing how annoying it was going to get," Hot Doc explained. "I mean, who knew she would suddenly get the urge to take a shower by herself?"

Lee narrowed his eyes, feeling all the dirt and sweat that had piled up on his throughout his workout. Funny how he was so desperate for a shower at the exact moment when she wanted everyone to stay clear.

"Sorry, sir. Looks like you're just going to have to wait with us," Kat said with a shrug.

Lee continued to stare at the closed hatch for a moment as a thought occurred to him. It was ridiculous, and probably his mind's thinly veiled attempt to push the buttons on Kara in the same way she had been pushing on his all day. It was stupid. It was thoughtless. It was something he felt he had to do with every bit of his being.

Firm in his decision, Lee finally turned away from the closed hatch to look at the two young pilots. "Actually, I don't think so. Because Kara wasn't the only one who won that little bet with the resident crazy. And I'm feeling extremely driven to take a shower."

Lee pulled open the hatch before something occurred to him and made him turn back. "Why don't you two keep filling Starbuck's request? If she wants a shower by herself, then we'll give it to her. She won't even know I'm there."

Kat shot Hot Dog a funny look as Lee disappeared.

"My ass she won't know he's there," Hot Dog said with a chuckle.

"They are so fraking,' Kat said, rolling her eyes.

"Who?" Helo asked, picking up on the conversation as he walked down the hall.

"Apollo and Starbuck. They're in the shower, and both of them requested that we keep people out."

"They're not fraking," Helo said, shaking his head. "They're just tired of being around people. For a ship that's understaffed, there are too many people around all the time. Besides, Starbuck is in love with someone else."

"Really?" Hot Dog said, the shock evident on his face. "Who?"

"No one you'd know," Helo answered. "Just some guy on Caprica. It's a long story and one I'm not sure she'd want me telling you. Trust me. Starbuck has no feelings of desire towards our CAG."

Kat stared at the closed door as the three pilots stood in silence. After a few seconds, she turned towards the two men with a confused look. "So you actually think they're not fraking?"


	3. Chapter 3

Lee let out a small sigh of relief as the steamy air of the showers hit his body. He had silently stood inside the door of the head for at least ten minutes, wondering if he was completely crazy to be letting himself do this. The woman that had been driving him to the edge of sanity all day was currently naked only a few feet away. And his mind had decided the logical next step was to get naked and join her.

"You're crazy," Lee said, pulling his tanks off and throwing them to the ground. His shorts soon followed. He grabbed a towel off the counter and slung it around his waist, making his way into the stalls. The sight waiting there for him made him stop in his tracks.

He had told Kat that he planned on just taking his shower and leaving without even letting Kara know he was there. That had been his intention. But he hadn't planned on what his body's reaction would be to actually seeing her there in front of his eyes.

The water was cascading down her body in soft, slow trails. He watched in awe as she ran her hands through her hair before finally resting them one on her shoulder to rub out some tension. Her body in motion looked positively sinful, and his worn body was beginning to take notice in a painfully obvious way.

"This was a stupid idea," he muttered, pulling his eyes away from her body and turning to leave. He misjudged his position in the room and knocked over a metal towel rack with a large bang. He froze in his tracks

"I told you nuggets to stay out of here until I was done," Kara hissed. "Do not make me come out there and hurt you."

Lee let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't turned around so she wouldn't even know it had been him. He could still sneak off without having to explain why he was having such a hard reaction to the women he had seen naked too many times to count.

"Lee? Is that you?"

Frak.

He turned and saw that she was now staring at him from her shower stall.

"I wanted to take a shower," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay. So why were you running away?" Kara stared in shock as Lee's face broke out in a blush. "No. No fraking way." She started to laugh. "You couldn't take the sight of me without clothes, Lee? That's too cute."

"It wasn't that," he said, glaring as he made his way to stand next to her shower. He hated when she could read him with such ease.

"Then what was it?" she asked as she looked up into his eyes.

"You've been a little touchy all day. I wasn't sure you would have the self-restraint necessary if I took my shower with you."

"With me?" She licked her lips as the right side of her mouth turned up in a small grin. "You were planning on taking a shower with me?"

"Maybe that's the first thing I would do if given the chance," he said taking a step closer. He knew that he was playing with fire here, but suddenly he understood why Kara had been tormenting him for so long. It was fun. "Why? Does it make you nervous to have me here, Kara?"

She narrowed her eyes at him before holding the soap out and dropping it into his hands. "You couldn't control yourself even if you tried."

"Isn't the whole point of that silly triad wager? To not have to control myself?" He took a few steps towards her until she had unknowingly back up against the outer wall to the shower. The water was close enough to spray the sides of their bodies lightly.

"What are you doing, Lee?" she whispered as his eyes became predatory. This was not where she thought this little flirtation would end up. She had aimed to make him uncomfortable, maybe loosen him up a little bit. She hadn't actually expected him to start doing the crazy, off-the-wall things that were more typical of her. She swallowed hard and tried her best not to look scared out of her mind at this new side of Lee.

"You're not the only one who wondered how the other would taste," he said, planting both of his hands firmly on the wall on either side of her head. He leaned in and nipped lightly at the side of her neck. His hands found their way to her waist and rested there as he took a through inventory of where her neck met her shoulder. Kara bit her lip in order to keep in the moan that had been slowly building up inside her frankly since the second he came into the head and started to stare at her.

She knew that there was a lot of reasons to push him away, but she jut couldn't get her hands to do what she wanted them to. Or maybe her hands were doing exactly what they wanted to and she didn't even know it.

Lee paused in his assault on her body when he felt her hands reach out to pull lightly on the towel wrapped around his waist. "You're playing with fire there, Kara," he warned, pulling back to look into her eyes even as his towel hit the ground. "And you know what they say about that."

"Lee."

He decided the way his name on her lips sounded was pure sin. Especially when it was this throaty whisper that he had never heard before. He liked it. "Yeah?"

Her right leg wrapped around his leg, and with the help of her hands on his back, she pulled him in flush with her body. "Burn me."

His eyes lit up with surprise as she grabbed his head and roughly tugged it to meet hers. Her lips pressed down onto his in a searing kiss that felt like it had been building since eternity. She could feel him give in as his hand reached around her waist and pulled her up off the ground. Together, their bodies twisted until he had her pinned underneath the fall of the water.

She sighed as her body came to rest against his and her feet touched the ground. For a moment, they just stood together not moving. The water beat down on their bodies, but suddenly it wasn't relieving any of the tension. At least, not in the way either one of them needed.

Lee stared at her for a split second before dropping his head to kiss her lips gently again. He nibbled one corner of her mouth and then the other, letting his breath come out in a long sigh. She worked her hands through his hair and suddenly her whole body relaxed in his arms.

He couldn't deny it anymore. This was what he wanted. He wanted the woman he couldn't have, the woman he shouldn't have, shouldn't want. And for whatever reason, she was letting him. This closed off woman was letting him in close to her.

Something inside of him that had been holding back burst.

It was instant heat. The kind that could burn a man alive if he wasn't careful. And Lee knew she could feel it too by the way she pushed her body shamelessly up against him. As if they had a mind of their own, his hands teased their way up her body until settling firmly against her breasts. His touch turned feather light against her as he realized he had no clue why they were both letting this happen. Why now of all times were they going through this uncharted territory.

All he knew was there was no way to stop it.

Throwing the last bit of caution he had out the window, he kissed his way down her neck to meet his hands. He heard her hiss in anticipation as he lightly teased his way around her right nipple, taking care to come close but to never really touch it no matter how much she struggle. And boy was she struggling. Her whole body bucked against his hold, begging him for more without saying a word.

Kara cried out helplessly when his mouth finally closed, hot and hungry, around her nipple. She fought for breath as he worked her body over with the same devotion he showed for everything he did. When that boy committed to something, he really committed, she thought with a small laugh.

"What are we doing?" she whispered as his mouth shifted to give attention to her other breast. "Oh gods, Lee. What the frak are we doing?"

Lee didn't respond to her question, too wrapped up in the beauty of her body to even register that she had spoken. This was the woman who had haunted his dreams for years, long before Zak had died and the world had ended. She was the one woman who understood him. The one he actually dreamed of loving openly when they finally found a place to call home.

He should have known he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation for as long as that would take.

The temptation of having her right there, ready and waiting, made him slip his hand down her water-moistened body until he came in contact with the heat between her thighs. He kissed her neck lightly and was delighted to feel her pulse begin to jump. She shuddered against his touch as he began to tease her folds lightly with the tips of his fingers. It was no surprise when the shudder turned into an all-out struggle to make him enter her more. It bordered on begging, and the thought that he had as much power over her as she did over him made Lee grin in anticipation.

He waited until her struggling subsided and she opened her eyes to look at him before he slid one finger deep inside her. He watched in excitement as Kara's eyes flared with emotion. Her mouth dropped open, inviting him to lean down and tease her tongue with his. He pushed another finger inside of her as she turned their kiss to something more primal. He could hear her breathing become shallower as he pulled her to edge and back with only his fingertips.

She wrenched her lips away from his and rested her head against his as his hands began to increase the tension building inside of her. "We shouldn't be doing this, Lee."

"I know," he whispered, kissing her softly. "Do you want me to stop?"

Kara had to hold back a groan of disappointment as he drew his fingers away from her. Once she had got over the loss of contact, she actually took stock of what he was offering. It was a way out. They didn't have to go through this. They weren't too far gone to pull away.

Sighing, she looked into her eyes and shook his head. "No. I just wanted to be clear that you and I are making a mistake."

"I know," he said softly. "But I don't really care."

"Neither do I," she said with a shrug.

Lee watched for her a minute more, just taking in the soft lines of her face and the wide brightness of her eyes as they looked into his. If he was a braver man, he would tell her how much she meant to him. How much it had hurt that week or so he had been without her. He would tell her that he loved her and he didn't want to take it back.

He knew that he could never do that, though, so he just pulled Kara back into a kiss and reached down to press into her again. He wanted to feel her moan against his lips, feel her quiver against his fingertips. It surprised him when it didn't take her more than a few seconds to return to that state of panic that told them both she was already on edge.

Lee felt her nails dig into his back as her knees gave out. She let out a small groan as her whole body began to shake. The waves of orgasm washed over her, and all she could do was hold on for dear life. The emotions beat against the back of her head until she lost all vision and had to rely on Lee to keep her from collapsing completely. She had never been so swept up by anything in her life.

Once her body had calmed itself, she shook her head to clear her vision and let out a sigh. "That felt good," she said with a light chuckle. Smiling, she tilted her head to meet his lips once more.

After a moment, he pulled away to look at her. She looked so content and happy. It was something he hadn't seen on her for quite some time. His heart swelled at the idea that he had been the one to put that look on her face. "Gods, Kara. The things you do to me," he whispered.

"Liked that, did you?"

It took him a second to realize that Kara thought he was talking about the stunts she had been pulling all day. She didn't realize that he was talking about something that went a whole hell of a lot deeper than flirting and foreplay.

It didn't matter. He would tell her all the things he had been holding back when they were finished. And at the moment, they were far, far, far from finished.

"Why don't you tell me?" Lee pulled her body in against his again, and Kara gasped as she felt just how much he had liked that.

He groaned as her hand reached down to surround him, flirting its way up and down his length in a slow, seductive dance. If he had thought he was on edge earlier, he had been wrong. Having her touch him was bordering on painful. But it was a pain he would endure any time she was willing to give it.

Before Lee could even fathom what she was doing, Kara had dropped to her knees and had taken him into her mouth. And then everything went black as she ravished him until he couldn't see straight. The sheer heat of her mouth seared through him, scorching him to the bone, and all the while he could feel himself desperately wanting to beg for more. To ask her if they could be like this, be this close, for forever.

His hands darted out to grip onto the wall, the towel rack, anything that could keep him from losing all balance. He had never imagined how erotic it could be to watch the top of a woman's head as she slowly and steadily drove him crazy with her tongue. It had never impacted him this greatly before.

But then again it had never been Kara.

The moans that drifted up to his ears from where she kneeled below almost sent him over the edge. She was enjoying this almost as much as he was. He wasn't sure if he could handle this.

The water had turned cold on them a few minutes earlier, but neither one had noticed. They were generated enough heat to compensate. And the heat was almost getting to be too much for Lee. With a groan, he pulled Kara up to his level. "If you keep that up, I won't have enough energy left to satisfy my drives," he said with a laugh.

"What drive do you have that would actually be better than what I was offering?" she said, even as he wrapped his hands around her backside and lifted her off the ground.

"This one."

Without warning, he pushed himself as far inside her as he could. She let out a sharp cry as her walls tightened around his abrupt intrusion. He felt her tremble against him as she began to spasm with the approach of another body-shaking, mind-bending release. Lee threw one hand up against the shower wall, still holding her off the ground with the other, and held on for the both of them as she let loose another loud moan. She shuddered against the sudden violence of her second orgasm, this one coming with little to no warning.

"Frak me," she said when her body had ridden out the wave and she could see straight again. "I don't think I've ever done that before." She let out a small laugh and wrapped her arms around his neck lightly. "You're good."

"Kara?" Lee whispered, causing her to turn her eyes up to look at him. "I'm not done yet." He pulled out of her body and pushed back in slowly to prove his point.

"Frak me," she repeated as the tension already started to rebuild.

"I'm trying," Lee said with a smirk. He gentled began to build up a slow rhythm as she wrapped her legs squarely around his waist and held on to his shoulder tightly. "Remember that bet?" he whispered into her ear.

"Huh?"

It was obvious Kara was suddenly having a lot of trouble concentrating. So as much as it pained him, Lee paused in his movements. This was important. She had to understand the one thing he had always wanted but had never been brave enough to ask of her. "The bet? The pleasure principle?"

"I didn't realize you were going to take that so literally," she said, smirking down at him from where he held her. Having him hold her up off the ground was such a manly, macho display of strength and domination. If it honestly wasn't so hot, she might be angry.

"Me, either."

"So what about it?" She struggled against him in a silent plea for him to start moving in her body again. This whole talk thing was overrated. She had always been more of an action girl. She bit her lip hard to keep from pleading with him out loud to start fraking her again.

"Well, I've been noticing you biting down on your lip rather hard."

Kara immediately let go of her lip as she realized that she had been doing that a lot. It gave Lee the opportunity to lean in and lightly nibble her bottom lip with his own teeth. After a few seconds, he kissed the marks his teeth left behind and pulled back to stare at her. "See what I mean, Lieutenant?"

She narrowed her eyes at his use of rank and tightened her muscles around where he still rested inside of her. His gasp was like music to her ears. Obviously he was starting to have a problem with control. He had a point to make, but damned if she was going to just let him sit there, doing nothing, while he made it. For frak's sake, they were naked in a shower and no one was around. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"Damnit, Kara," he hissed once he had gotten himself back under control. "I'm trying to say something here."

"Less with the talking. Try to make your point without the words."

"Fine," he said. "Whatever you want, Starbuck." All the gentleness disappeared as something inside him snapped. He pushed her against the wall hard enough to bruise and began to thrust inside of her with all his strength. Deciding to worry about the consequences later, he yanked her hair, dragging her head back to expose her throat for his teeth. He bit down on her hard as her whole body vibrated against his motions.

It wasn't a feeling of desperation that was consuming him. Instead he felt an all-encompassing appetite to consume as much of the woman currently struggling to keep control. Kara was biting back the scream that suddenly wanted to come out, and they both knew it.

Lee let out a laugh without slowing down the pace. "That's what I'm talking about. You're holding back on me, Kara."

"What do you want me to do, Lee?" she spit back between his thrusts. "Scream so that the line of people outside the door hear the CAG fraking my brains out?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want."

He could feel her tense up as the weight of his words hung between them. He stopped his motions as her eyes widened. The full meaning of what he was asking was hitting her.

He was asking her to risk practically her whole career. If anyone heard them breaking the fraternization policy, it was likely her wings would be taken away at least temporarily until a hearing could be made by those in power. Not to mention she would probably lose a lot of her standing with the pilots. They would think she had frakked her way to her current standing in the Fleet no matter how good of a pilot she was.

On the other side, Lee would definitely be stripped of his position as CAG for having relations with a pilot under his command. His father would be humiliated, and chances are all the ground he had gained with the pilots of Galactica would be lost. They would resent him, imagining that he thought breaking policy was fine because he had Daddy to fix it.

"We could get into a lot of trouble if someone hears," she said, staring at him intently.

"I know. But it's almost like my head is yelling at me to let people know what we're doing. I want to imbed this moment into everyone so that they won't forget I was the one who finally got to you. Who finally made you lose control."

Kara stared at him and wondered where this sudden desire to claim her had come from. She had been flirting with Lee for years, and never, not once had he hinted at being interested. She had thought she had gotten a read on him. He was the type of man who didn't care about physical things. He just wanted to keep his pilots and his family alive.

She had gotten it all wrong.

"Okay," she whispered.

"Okay?"

"Make me scream, Lee."

His eyes widened even as she was pulling his body into hers.


	4. Chapter 4

"Did you hear that?" Kat asked, turning to stare at the hatch door.

"What?" Hot Dog said as he took a step towards her.

A small moan echoed through the seal of the door. "There it is again!" Kat yelled with a cry. "Someone's moaning in there."

"Probably just the CAG working out his frustration," Racetrack said with a laugh. She had joined the pilots waiting to use the head about fifteen minutes ago and was already starting to regret her decision to go along with that stupid triad bet. She had just come off of CAP and was about as sweat-soaked as you could get.

The moans started to get louder and began to take the form of words.

"Was that the CAG's name I just heard?" Racetrack asked as she pulled herself to her feet.

"I think so," Kat said with a laugh. "And I think it was Starbuck who was moaning it!"

"Stop acting like little children," Helo said from his position leaning against the corridor wall. "As much as your little perverted minds would like to think it, Apollo and Starbuck are not in there fraking. It's against regulations, and besides, those two are like best friends. It would be too strange."

"I don't know," Racetrack said. "If I was best friends with Lee Adama, I think I would still want to frak him any chance I got."

Helo was about to respond when the moans got even louder and began to cry for whomever or whatever to go harder. "I bet Starbuck cooked this all up just to make you guys think she was screwing the CAG."

"But he would have to go along with it," Kat pointed out from her current position of smooshing her ear up against the door. "And I don't think our CAG's that type of guy." She squeaked as a loud grunt that was decidedly male traveled through the door.

"Well, he either went along with her plan or they're actually fraking," Hot Dog said with a laugh.

Kat's eyes went wide as the moans turned into screams. "Come on, guys. They have to be fraking."

"Fraking with your minds," Helo said, shaking his head. "I've had enough of this little show, though. I have better things to do. And in case you guys don't remember, there are other heads on this ship. You can shower there."

"And miss the Starbuck/Apollo show?" Kat replied. "No fraking way."

* * *

Lee collapsed to the ground with Kara in his arms, the water from the shower still beating down upon them. She rested her head on his shoulder and let out a breath. "That was nice," she giggled.

"Yeah."

"Do you think anyone heard me?"

"I think the whole ship might have."

"You wanted me to scream."

"And you did."

"Yeah. It was nice."

"You keep saying that." Lee reached up to turn the water off. "But you're right. It was quite nice."

"Do you think we can do it again?" she said, laughing as she lay herself flat against the shower floor.

Lee shook his head and got up to grab a few towels. "I don't know about that. A man has his limits. You put me on edge all day long and then just gave me the ride of my life. I need some recovery time."

Kara shot an eyebrow up at him. "I bet I could change fix that."

Lee took the towels in hand and turned to look at her. His eyes widened as he took in her full naked form lying in post-coital bliss. Her hands were working their way down her body to rest between her thighs. Lee felt his body jump to life.

"There are people out there waiting to get their time in the head," he said even though she could feel his eyes locked on her body. He was enjoying this even as he struggled to do the right thing. She really needed to get him to loosen up more.

Chucking a towel at her, he grinned. "Cover up, Lieutenant."

She stuck her tongue out at him but stood up and did as she was told. His words had a hint of truth to them. She had made the other pilots wait way too long to get their turn at the showers. It wasn't really fair, bet or no bet. Still, that wasn't the biggest worry on her mind at the moment. "We should talk about this, Lee."

"Nothing to talk about," he said over his shoulder as he turned to wrap his own towel around his body.

She smiled and gave him a nod even as her heart fell just a little bit. Something had just happened between them that she was pretty sure she had never experienced before. And for the first time in her life, she felt compelled to talk about it. It figured that now would be the time he chose to finally shut her out.

Biting her lip so that she wouldn't do something stupid like start to cry, she pulled the towel a little tighter around her body and decided it was time to break their little peaceful interlude and return to the real world.

Her hand was within inches of opening the hatch when Kara felt him grab her. Her back made contact with the door as Lee pulled her into a kiss very similar to the one that had started this whole mess. It went from light and teasing to deep and heavy and then back again. Frankly, it tore her heart in two even while it made her soar.

After a few minutes, he pulled back and gave her one of his trademark lazy smiles.

"Something on your mind, Captain?"

"I was just thinking. We do have a whole twelve hours left on this little experiment we won."

"Yeah?" she said, pulling the hatch door open.

"I just thought that maybe you might help me out with a few more of my drives," he whispered as they stepped into the corridor.

Kara was about to respond to his very open invitation when she realized they had a fairly large audience. In fact, it looked like the whole damn Fleet.

"Peaceful shower, Starbuck?" Kat asked.

"The best. You know I'm really enjoying the perks of this little bet." Her eyes scanned the people in front of her before resting on the man standing next to her. "And I plan on enjoying it for the next twelve hours, too. After I get some rack time, of course. That shower wore me out."

Lee's eyes flashed with desire as she gave him one more smirk before stepping away.

"So, Apollo, I have a question for you." Lee turned to look at Hot Dog. "Have you even done anything with the little privilege you won? I mean, Starbuck's been all over the place making requests and demands. But there's been nothing from you."

"I told Starbuck this before. Most of the drives I have aren't that out of the ordinary. Nothing that you would even notice." Giving them one last smile, Lee stepped away. For some reason, he felt the need to go back to the bunkroom to catch some sleep even though he had been there only a few hours earlier.

"They so didn't frak," Kat said, shaking her head and stepping into the head. "What a waste."


	5. Chapter 5

Lee unzipped his flight suit as he made his way through Galactica's corridors. He was not in the best of moods. About six hours ago, he had thought he was on his way to the bunkroom to spend a little more time "discussing" the whole concept of the pleasure principle with Kara.

That was before Dee had called for the CAG over the ship-wide comm system.

One quick phone call to CIC had Apollo rushing into the bunkroom to grab clothes. He had been disappointed to see that Kara was not there. He hadn't had time to seek her out so she would have no idea what was going on.

"Fraking Cylons," Lee muttered to himself as he made a final turn down the last corridor.

There had been a few Raiders hovering around the edge of the Fleet and for some reason, his father thought it was important he take a batch of the new nuggets out into the air to show them proper technique. Because the nuggets were so slow, it had taken them over four hours to understand what he was telling them.

It didn't help that he kept getting distracted by the memory of Kara's naked body pressed in close to his as the shower rained water down upon their joined bodies. He could practically taste her. That made it a little hard to concentrate on the proper technique to take down a toaster.

Sighing, he pulled the hatch to the bunkroom open and wasn't surprised to find the whole place silent. It was the middle of the night so the only pilots awake were those currently out flying the CAP. He pulled his flight suit off and threw it lightly into the bottom of his locker, trying his best not to let his anger and frustration get the best of him.

Lee paused in front of the bunk he shared with Kara as his eyes rested on the closed curtain of the bottom bunk. It wouldn't be that hard to pull that little piece of fabric aside and join her. Frak. It had been all he had thought about in the six hours they had been apart.

In the end, rationality won over his raw desire.

True, something had happened between them in the head earlier that day, and for some reason, she hadn't backed away like she normally would. The only thing he had done to encourage her was give her one hell of a kiss goodbye and then abandon his promise to spend the next twelve hours showing her exactly how literal they could make the concept of a pleasure principle.

No doubt about it, she was pissed at him. And he knew from experience that she had a killer right hook.

Lee pulled his tanks up off his head, leaving him clad in only a pair of duty shorts, and let out another small sigh of frustration before climbing up the ladder into his bunk. Laying one arm over his eyes, he tried to tune out all the anger and desire he had been dealing with the past eighteen hours. He tried to forget what had gone on.

But the second his eyes closed, images of Kara immediately floated to the top of his mind.

The image of her mouth falling open in ecstasy as he eased one finger and then two deep inside her.

The image of her coming apart all around him as he entered her for the first time.

The image of her mouth taking him in, driving him mad with the soft, sensual movements of her tongue.

"Frak," he hissed, opening his eyes and staring up at the top of his bunk. He could feel the painful hardness pressing against his shorts. Knowing he really had no other choice if he wanted to get some sleep, he reached his hands inside the binding clothes to pull himself into hand.

Lee let out a soft moan as he immediately felt the tension increase in a good way. He closed his eyes and willed himself to imagine it was Kara's hands pulling his erection out of his shorts. It was Kara's hand slowly working its way up and down him, teasing his tip lightly in an effort to make this all the more painfully pleasant. He could practically hear her teasing him in that low raspy bedroom voice she didn't even know she had.

"Having fun, Captain?"

His eyes shot up and turned to where the curtain to his bunk was pulled back a few inches. Kara was smirking at him through the opening, her eyes focused on the movement of his hands.

"I was thinking of you," he shot back, not slowing down in his quest for tension relief.

Kara gave him another devilish smile before climbing into the bunk and ripping the curtain shut behind her. "All you had to do was ask, Lee," she said, replacing her hands with his. "I would have been more than happy to help you out."

"I thought you were…" His voice caught in his throat as she leaned in to trail her tongue along his ear. "Frak. You're supposed to be mad at me."

"Oh, I am mad at you. Doesn't mean I still don't want to feel you," she said, tightening her hand around him.

Lee bit down hard on his bottom lip to keep from waking up the other pilots. Here they were, playing with fire again.

Or where they really here? Was this actually happening or was it just his mind giving him what he wanted more than anything right now? Having her here with him, her hands playing so nimbly with his body, it felt more like fantasy than reality.

As her hands started doing things he was pretty sure were outlawed on at least eight of the twelve colonies, he realized not even he could dream up torture so sweet. He reached his hand up to pull her into a kiss in a thinly veiled attempt to keep himself from crying out from the sudden heat being generated between them. It must be something bred deep inside a Viper pilot, the need to feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins.

Kara could feel him teetering on the edge already and suddenly realized he really must have been thinking about her if she could get him worked up this hard this fast. And suddenly she didn't want to let him have all the fun.

Lee let out a little whimper as she pulled her hands away from him. "Kara?"

"Why should you have all the fun?" she taunted him.

Lee opened his eyes to see her pulling at the drawstring to her sweatpants. She wasn't… oh gods. She was. He couldn't take this.

Kara pulled her feet out of the sweat pants and flung them to the bottom of the bunk, giving Lee a wicked smile. "You have six hours to make up for, Adama. But lucky for you, I'm going to take care of the first apology all by myself."

She threw one leg over his body, effectively straddling him, before lowering herself inch by excruciating inch onto his still hard erection. With each small movement forward, she let out a small gasp.

Lee smiled as he fit inside of her completely and she let out all the breath she had been holding in. "Gods, I missed you," he said, reaching up to brush a stray hair out of her face. Her eyes flashed open to look down at him, and he could feel her freezing up. "Don't," he whispered. "Don't do that, Kara."

She bit her lip and forced the small bit of fear back down inside of her. It really scared her how much she depended on this man. Gods. She desperately wanted to tell him, but Kara was afraid he would hate her for taking their relationship from a casual frak into something much more serious. The world was ending, and it wasn't healthy to form attachments like this.

Kara knew she had to keep this simple, which meant less talking and more action. Placing her hands on his chest, she began to lift herself up off of him before slamming her body back down against his in a violent, passion-filled rhythm. The abruptness seemed to be hitting him just as hard as it was hitting her. She felt Lee's hand reach up to grasp her backside and guide her along in her movements.

"Oh gods," she whispered, leaning down to capture his lips in a searing kiss. "Why the frak haven't we been doing this for months?"

"You were busy with other things," he whispered against her lips.

"I should have been busy with your things," she said with a laugh.

Smirking, he used her momentary lapse in conversation to flip their bodies so that he was lying above her. She felt his hands tease their way up and down her legs as she hooked them tightly around his back. He was controlling the teasing tone of their lovemaking as he drew himself as far into her body as he could.

Lee couldn't tear his eyes away from her as Kara's face erupted in rapture as the right buttons were pushed and she tightened around him. He could feel her holding back her screams, and knowing from experience how loud he could make her scream, he wanted to congratulate her. She dug her nails into his back as he began to lose control and let out a soft, guttural moan as he erupted inside of her.

"Well, you were right. That was a lot better than just imagining you with me," he said with a laugh after a few minutes of recovery.

Her hand reached up to absentmindedly trail up and down the muscles in his chest and arms. She could feel him tense up beneath her touch. "Glad I could be of service, Captain."

He moved his body off of where it rested on top of her, only slightly disappointed when she had to stop touching him. He immediately felt better when she cradled in against him and, laying his arm across her, he pulled her in the last few inches. "Actually, it felt more like I was being of service to you. Care to explain?"

"I've always wanted to frak another pilot in his own bunk," she said with a satiated grin plastered across her face. "Figured now was the time. Didn't know I would have to wait six hours for it, though."

"I'm sorry about that, Kara," Lee said, reaching his hand up to stroke her cheek lightly. "The CIC called with a request for me to go out on a training run with the nuggets. I tried to find you, but there just wasn't time."

"It's not that big of a deal."

Lee shook his head. "Don't feed me that bullshit. I know you better than that. You lived your whole life moving from one disappointment to the next. I don't ever want to feed in to that pattern."

"You're taking this too seriously," she warned him.

"We both know whatever this is, it is serious. This isn't some thoughtless fraking between friends. We've both done that and know how it feels. It isn't what went on in that shower. And it sure as hell doesn't feel like what just happened."

"Lee, this is just a little perk from a bet made in triad. We both know that."

"That's how it started, Kara. It's not how it's ending." He reached up to turn her head so that she had no choice but to look into his eyes. "Answer me this. If this was just a little perk of a good hand in triad, why are you in my bunk right now? There were plenty of men in this bunkroom that you could have had in an instant. When I didn't show up, why did you chose to wait around instead of finding someone else?"

She tore her eyes away from him. His question brought up too many doubts in her mind. She couldn't let herself dwell on what that meant.

"Kara," he started.

"Please, Lee. I can't."

After a moment, he nodded. "I can wait. But eventually you're going to have to explain to me what is going through your head. I want to know why it seems that everything always comes back to you and I."

They lapsed into silence, comfortably resting in each other's arms. Kara was being so quiet that Lee could swear she had fallen asleep. He could feel himself begin to drift away just as she lifted her head up to look at him. "Did you really think I would be mad at you for not showing up?"

"I was afraid you would be," he admitted. He stretched his neck so that he could give her a small kiss. It lasted barely a second, but it still made Kara's stomach fill with butterflies. She really wasn't used to this side of him. It caught her off guard. Made her want to do things that she shouldn't want to do.

Pulling herself up off of him, she grabbed the edge of the tanks still covering her body and pulled them up over her head. They ended up in a heap with her sweatpants at the end of the bunk. Kara laughed as she saw Lee's eyes widened at the sight of her sitting completely naked before him.

"If I knew being nice to you caused that kind of reaction, I might have tried it sooner," he whispered.

Kara's licked her lips and smiled at the man laying beside her. "So, we still have a few hours left on that bet. What else can I do you for, Captain Apollo?"

The comm system blared with Dee's voice as she announced the changing of the CAP in approximately an hour, and suddenly an idea popped into Lee's head. Sitting up, he shrugged himself out of the shorts that had never really made it off his body before. He moved until he had her pinned up against the side wall of his bunk. A wicked smile spread across his face as movement began to filter up from the room below.

Kara's eyes widened as he licked his lips before lowering his head down to take one of her nipples into his mouth. This man was completely, fraking crazy. "Lee! There are people waking up," she hissed through her teeth.

"Oh, I know," he said. He took the moment's pause to blow softly on the sensitive skin of her breast, made moist by his tongue, and felt her shiver against his hold. "That's what I want. I want to have my way with you without anyone having any idea that you've even in here with me."

"First you want everyone to know," she said as he returned his hands, his lips, and his attention back to her body. "And now you want no one to know. I never knew you were so fraking confused."

"You like it," he said, pulling his mouth up to taste hers. He pushed his body into hers, knowing that she was loving this as much as he was. If it had been any way otherwise, she would have punched him by now.

The sound of Kat screaming at Hot Dog to stop poking at her drowned out Kara's response. Lee took the momentary distraction the nuggets posed to Kara to move a hand from where it pinned her to the wall. He trailed it down her stomach and, when she finally turned to look at him, teased it along the moist, hot center.

She let out a soft moan, and he quickly covered her mouth with his free hand. "Ah ah ah. That's not part of the game."

She scowled at him even as she used one hand to pull his off of her mouth and the other hand to grasp the back of his head, crushing his lips into hers roughly. Her teeth nibbled on his bottom lip for a few seconds before she dug her nails into his back and bit down hard. The pain mingled with the pleasure of making her tense under his fingertips made him struggle for control.

"You know I imagined this as I was in my Viper," he whispered into her ear once he had gained control over himself again. He was pleased to feel her continued squirming as his fingers teased her ruthlessly. "I imagined feeling how hot you were for me. Knowing that I could do anything and everything to you and you wouldn't stop me."

"Must have been hell," Kara gasped out.

"Rather liked it." Lee only took the time to kiss her lightly on the forehead before slowly inching a finger inside her. "I kept thinking about how good it felt to be inside of you, to know that you were mine."

His touch was bordering on driving her insane, and his words were threatening to throw her over the edge. Kara felt her arms reach out to grasp the wall, the ceiling, anything that could keep her from falling to a million pieces. "Lee, I can't do this," she whispered as her breathing started becoming heavier.

"Yes, you can. And you will," he said. He pushed her hard up against the wall and slid another finger inside of her. She could feel him straining for control, straining to keep from showing his more primal side. Gods. If he only knew how much she wanted to see him lose his perpetual cool.

She felt a slight twinge of pain as the pressure of his body pinned her against the wall. There was something digging into her back, but she didn't really care. He was holding her so tightly she thought she might lose where she ended and he began. She had never let anyone in this close.

"I can't do this," she choked out again.

"Kara, all you have to do is say the word and I'll stop." He wrapped his free hand around her waist and pulled her against his body, still not letting up on the pressure he was creating deep inside of her with his fingertips. "Do you want me to stop?"

Kara shook her head as her body began to shake under the stress of keeping quiet. She never thought that fraking could be like this. Such a strange feeling of desire and need had never come to her when she was letting someone touch her in such an intimate way.

That was it, though. It had been years since she had let someone this deep inside her. As Lee shifted the angle of his fingers, she tried to hold in the giggle at the irony of that thought. He was deep inside her in every sense of the phrase, and she found that she didn't care. She didn't care that she was letting this man walk all over her. Because it was Lee. He would never push her to do anything that he didn't know she wanted. She could trust him.

"I trust you," she whispered as she felt the knot inside of her slowly unwind as his touch became less teasing and more insisting.

Lee had no idea the reaction he would have to those nakedly honest words. All he knew was it caused him to lose the little bit of control he still had.

Kara bit back a scream as Lee's hands left her body in order to grab her shoulders and slam her down hard onto the mattress. She barely had time to hope that no one had heard them before Lee's body was pressing her down against the bed. His tongue traced her lower lip, teasing her to let him inside. She wanted to let out a laugh at how playful Lee had become. She would never have guessed it could be like this with him.

"Where the frak is Starbuck?" Racetrack's voice carried over the noise of the active bunkroom, making Kara stiffen. She had forgotten for a second that they weren't alone. "I leant her my soap and she never gave it back."

"Probably used it all up during that little personal shower she took with the CAG," Kat yelled back to her.

Kara's eyes went wide as she saw Lee duck his head to hold in a laugh. Little did they know just how personal that shower had gotten. "I think they heard me screaming before," she said, biting back a laugh of her own.

Lee rolled his eyes and went back to kissing her. He never would have guessed that this would be one of his favorite things about being able to get so close to her. It was the simple sensation of feeling those soft lips he had spent hours staring at locked so tightly with his that really drove him crazy. Knowing what those lips could do was definitely going to drive him crazy when this little lapse in judgment between the two of them ended.

Kara looked down at the blind expression of happiness plastered across Lee's face, and she could feel her heart break. They only had a few hours left, and then this would all be over. They would return back to being only a CAG and his pilot.

She felt a sudden determination to make this memorable. It was the least she could ask for after all the pain she had gone through in her life. All she wanted was one vivid memory of how good her life could have been if she hadn't been such a frak-up.

Lee wasn't surprised when she pulled away from the simple intimacy of shared kisses to turn the tide back to a more sexual nature. What surprised him was that she didn't go in for the kill like he would have thought. Instead, she slowly rubbed her folds up against his exceedingly hard erection and let out a small moan at the rightness of the movement. The movement was racked with teasing and had little to no satisfaction to it, but still it made him want to sigh in relief.

When the corners of her mouth turned up in the beginnings of a smile, it took all of Lee's control to keep himself from losing it. He had never seen her so happy. He took the opportunity to reach his hands out to feel her body locked against his. The only reward he wanted came in the form of a faint gasp escaping her lips coupled with a sharp intake of breath as his hands lingered against the sensitive skin of her breasts.

"You're killing me," he whispered as she continued to tease him with her body. "Why are you tormenting me?"

She answered him without thinking. "I need to make this count, Lee. I want to remember what it feels like to be with you." When she realized what she had said, her movements stopped and she ducked her head away from his inquiring eyes.

"I don't understand."

"You and I both know this can't go on past tonight. Now just be quiet and enjoy the ride."

Lee wanted to argue with her. He wanted to scream at her to stop staring at the wall and look him in the eye. He wanted to insist that of course this didn't have to end if she didn't want it to. He would give up anything and everything just to keep these feelings alive between them.

But Kara had chosen that moment to slowly guide him inside of her, clamping herself tightly around him every inch of the way. The second he thought she was going to take him all the way inside of her, she would pull back until they were almost apart. And then they would start all over again.

It was a slow, sensual dance that he knew would kill him. Not that he really cared.

He could feel her come apart against him as she continued to pull up and push down upon him slowly, and Lee tried his best to ignore the fact that her eyes were shining with tears. This was hurting her, and he had a feeling he knew why. He wished she would just tell him so that they didn't have to play these games anymore.

Wishes didn't come true without a little hard work, he decided as he watched her shivering die down. And frankly, he could think of worst kinds of work he could be doing.

Grabbing her hips tightly with his hands, he hoped she wouldn't hate him for taking away the control. Kara barely had time to react before he pulled her body down and moved his hips up until he was buried completely inside of her. It was hard. It was deep. And, oh gods, she was loving it.

He stared in awe as he watched the tears fall back from her eyes, replaced by a small smile and a flicker of something she was hiding deep inside. He could feel her lock herself around him as he sat up to change the angle of his thrusts. He cradled her body in his arms as she wrapped her legs around him and allowed him to push her back against the wall.

The brutality of his movements slowly melted away as the tone shifted away from the notion of a quick frak before their time together expired. "This is what I want you to remember," Lee whispered into her ear as he felt her hold back a whimper. The sounds of the bunkroom were slowly dying back down, but they both knew they still weren't alone. On a ship like Galactica, you could never truly be alone.

Kara suddenly felt the need to run. She had wanted to remember the feelings he stirred up inside of her, but she didn't want to feel so much. It was a obvious contradiction, but she didn't care. All she knew was that she wanted desperately to feel while not feeling anything at all.

"Lee," she gasped as he turned his lips up to lay gentle kisses on her shoulder and neck.

"I know," he whispered against her skin. "You don't have to say it."

Kara bit her lips as her whole body began to quiver. Lee's touch didn't shift at all. It was still gentle and determined. He wanted her to feel this just as badly as she did.

And suddenly she knew that she didn't want to lose herself unless he was lost along with her. Grasping his head in her hands, she turned his lips up to meet hers. She could feel his arms tighten their hold on her, and she finally let herself give in to him.

The orgasm ripped through her body in the most gentle and excruciating way. She could feel him struggling to hold his cries along with her as the feelings between them came to a head. And still she kept the innocent contact of their lips together as the wave crashed over them both.

As they lay breathless in one another's arms, the cold of the bunkroom crept its way into their concealed corner of space, and Kara felt herself shiver. Lee responded immediately and pulled the military-issued blankets around them. He still held onto her tightly, almost as if he was afraid she was going to disappear if he let go even for a second. The fact that she was still clinging to him didn't go unnoticed, either.

"Kara," he whispered, moving his hand to slowly tilt her chin up towards him.

"I know," she said with a distinctly sad sigh. She tried to pull herself away but was surprised to feel his arms tighten even more.

"I want you to do one last thing for me."

She narrowed her eyes at him as a feeling of dread fell over her. Why did she want to cry at the idea that his request might force her to ruin the moment? Why should that matter so much? Pushing those thoughts and more to the back of her head, she asked, "What do you need?"

"I want you to admit that this is a hell of a lot more than just following our drives."

"Sure, Lee. It was about finally seeing what it would be like. I know we've both wondered."

"No. That's not it." She pulled back and gave him an incredulous look, causing him to let out a small laugh. "Okay. Maybe that wasn't all of it."

"Fine. If that wasn't it, then tell me what you want to hear."

"I want you to admit that you love me, Kara." The way her eyes lit up in fear was almost comical. She really didn't want to have to admit it, he realized. That didn't mean he was going to give up on pushing the issue. "I want you to admit that there was no way you could have let me in like you did if you didn't feel the same way for me that I feel for you."

"Are you saying…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened at the realization.

"I love you, Kara. Always have. Seems like I always will. And I just wanted you to know that."

"But you also want me to say it back."

"It would be a nice thing to do."

"But if I did, you know I would just say it was all part of the bet we won. You wanted me to say it, and I had to comply," she pointed out.

"Nope," Lee said, shaking his head. "That little bet wore off about half an hour ago. Whatever you say now is the real thing."

"So when you said you loved me?"

"It wasn't just because I thought you wanted to hear it." He stared at her intently as his hands smoothed her hair back from her face. "It was because I knew you needed to hear it."

Lee watched as the words slowly hit home and her face began to freeze up in fear. He had expected this kind of reaction. "You don't have to say it," he said, giving her a smile he hoped she wouldn't see right through. "I just wondered." He pulled away from her to grab her clothes which were still lying in a pile at the end of the bunk.

"No, Lee," Kara whispered, reaching out to pull him back to her. He dropped her clothes and let her grip on to him tightly. She suddenly seemed incredibly vulnerable. It was starting to scare him. "I don't need you to be all cavalier right now," she whispered.

"What do you need me to be?"

"I need you to be the persistent pain in the ass I know you can be. I need you to not give up until I say it. I need you to hold me tight until I don't have the strength to deny it anymore. Because you letting me off the hook hasn't helped these fraking feelings go away. They're still there. They're always there." She shook her head. "I can't get rid of them. I sure as hell tried these past few months."

"Say it then, Kara," Lee said, grasping her tightly against him just like she asked. "Stop trying to rationalize and just say it."

She shook her head and he took the moment to pull her into a kiss. Doing the only thing he knew worked, he stripped away the few layers of defense she had managed to put back up in the time they had been talking. "Please say it," he whispered, pulling back to rain kisses on the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. He knew it was a low blow and one that would make her forget all the reasons why she was closing herself off. He didn't care.

"Oh gods help me. I love you, Lee," she said, leaning in to his touch. "It can't mean anything though. The second we step outside this bunk, it's all over. The fantasy is dead."

"If you really believed that, you would have already left."

Kara pulled back and shook her head at him. He could see the sadness and guilt beginning to creep back into her eyes. "It's the truth. There are policies and regulations to adhere to. There's a war out there that needs to be fought without emotions. We can't let this hold us back. People are counting on us."

"Frak people," Lee said with a laugh. "And frak this argument. We can go back and forth like this for days, but I'm still going to be right. If what you said is the truth and you do love me, then we can make this work."

"You really want this, don't you?" she said, shaking her head. She could feel herself surrendering to the inevitability that was their relationship. She had been resisting this for far too long.

Lee drew her down to lay next to him in the bunk and started in with that special kind of kissing that made her forget ridiculous things like duty and responsibility and regulation. It was exactly what she needed.

"We'll figure it out, Kara," he said, pulling away after a minute. " Just give it a chance. Give me a chance."

"Fine." She sighed as she pulled away from him and picked her clothes up off the bed. "But for now, I have to get dressed. My CAG scheduled me for CAP in about four hours, and I haven't finished the paperwork I started yesterday. Had a little distraction come up to me in the middle of my shower and I never got around to it."

"I've only slept about three hours in the past two days," Lee pointed out as he stretched his arms out and rested them behind his head.

"Don't look so smug about that."

"Considering what I've been doing instead of sleeping, I think I have a right to be smug." His face erupted into a long yawn as his body started to catch on to his exhaustion. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, Kara. You're going to have to go."

"Wait a second. Why do I get the feeling that even if I didn't have to leave, you'd still be kicking me out right about now? Never figured you for the love 'em and leave 'em type, Lee."

"I'm not. I'm tired and want to go to sleep now. With you sitting there, it's not really an option so I need you to go away." He put a hand over her mouth before she could start to argue. "Besides, if you didn't have to go right now, I definitely wouldn't be kicking you out. I'd be doing my damnedest to convince you to stay here with me."

"Don't tempt me," she said with a laugh, leaning down to give him one last kiss before starting down the ladder. She had just enough time to pull her clothes back on before the hatch to the bunkroom slid open.

"Lieutenant Thrace," Dr. Baltar said, strutting over to her. "Just the woman I've been looking for."

"Been searching for me?" Kara rolled her eyes and turned to grab a few things from her locker. Kneeling down, she started searching for that lost bar of soap Racetrack had lent her.

"You've been a hard person to find. I've been searching for you for twenty-four hours. First Officer Dualla says you were out flying the CAP and then the Chief tells me you were working out in the gym. Next I was told by Lieutenant Agathon that you were taking a shower and didn't want anyone to disturb you. Then Specialist Cally tells me you're sleeping and would probably kill me if I disturbed you. Imagine my surprise to find you not sleeping at all."

"I just woke up. Had a particularly exhausting night. Little bet and all," she said, giving him a wink. She had to stifle a grin as she heard Lee in his bunk, struggling to keep in his own laughter.

"How did that go?"

"I guess you could say I took the pleasure part of the principle a little too literally, Doc," she said, standing up straight. "Pity you couldn't have found me in time."

"Right," Baltar said hesitantly.

"Is there something else you needed?" Kara asked as she paused at the open bunkroom door.

"The President wants me to tell Captain Adama she needs to discuss some security issues with him when he has a spare moment. You wouldn't know where he is, would you?"

"He's in his bunk," Kara said, pointing to the space right above where he stood. "See you around, Doc."

Baltar watched her leave the room and wondered if there wasn't some aspect to their conversation that he had missed. He jumped slightly as the sound of the curtain above him pulling back intruded upon his thoughts.

"The President wants to see me?"

Baltar looked up at Lee and was surprised to see that the Captain was not looking his best. He looked as bad as when the Cylons had forced them to live on a thirty-three minute cycle. It was terrible the kinds of things war put you through, Baltar decided, shaking his head slowly before turning to answer Lee's question. "Yes, she does. It sounded like it was very, very important. You wouldn't want to keep her waiting."

"All right." Lee jumped down and pulled a few tanks and a pair of fatigue pants out of his locker, slipping them on quickly. "Hey, Doc. I wanted to thank you. That little bet you made at the triad table worked out nicely for me."

"No problem, Captain. I'm glad you could find use for it."

Lee gave Baltar a smirk as he suddenly felt himself wondering why he had considered this funny, little man such a threat when it came to Kara. "I hope you didn't have much trouble finding me," he said, grabbing a sweatshirt out of the locker and pulling it on over his head.

"Actually, I've only been looking for the past ten minutes or so. The President herself has been trying to find you all day."

Lee smiled and started to walk towards the door, tossing his last words smoothly over his shoulder. "Funny. I've been with Starbuck the whole time." Lee turned at the last second to smile at him. "By the way, Doctor, the competition is over. Turns out you never even had a chance."

Baltar stood frozen in fear as the weight of Captain Adama's words weighed down on him in connection with what Lieutenant Thrace had said to him earlier. After a moment, he shook his head, deciding it couldn't be true. There was no way that little frakker son of the Commander had beat him in anything. No way.

Laughing lightly to himself, Baltar began to think up of another way he could give Kara the opportunity to strike up an encounter like they had had on Colonial Day. He wanted to show her that she needed to be punished for her little slip-up the last time.

Six watched in disgust as the man she had been slowly grooming to be humanity's downfall whistled his way out of the bunkroom. The idiot didn't even understand when he had lost. Good thing the Cylons weren't really concerned with him.

No. It was Apollo and Starbuck who were special. They were the ones with destinies intertwined with those the machines had created. That was the real reason she had been put onboard the Galactica. When push came to shove, it had nothing to do with Gaius Baltar.

Six knew that her real job was to watch out for those two Viper pilots. She would take care of them even if it was the last thing she did.

After all, it was what God wanted.


End file.
